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Kip Moore is gearing up for a year filled with new beginnings, including the launch of two tours, a fresh label home at Virgin Music Group, and the release of his sixth studio album, Solitary Tracks, out Friday (Feb. 28).
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In preparation, Moore has taken his annual trip to rejuvenate in Maui, a place he’s found respite since 2014. “I’ll come out here to surf for a month or so and relax,” Moore tells Billboard via phone.
Just over a decade ago, Moore broke through with his debut hit, “Something ‘Bout a Truck,” which spent two weeks atop Billboard’s Country Airplay chart. He would earn four more Country Airplay top 5 hits, including “More Girls Like You” and “Last Shot.” Since then, Moore has veered increasingly creative with his sound and projects, refining the grizzled, heartland rock sound that has become part of his signature creative palette.
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After Moore parted ways with UMG imprint MCA Nashville in 2024, he says he recorded the first nine songs on the album independently. Solitary Tracks was intended to encompass just 13 songs, but given the lack of time constraints, he kept creating and recording — resulting in a 23-song span, split over four parts, encompassing rock (“Live Here to Work,” “Love and War”), pared-back singer-songwriter tracks (“Forever is a Lie”), muscular folk-rock (“Learning as I Go”) and old-school country (“Alley Cat”). Throughout, he touches on themes of introspection, maturity, romance, isolation, cherishing freedom and embracing life shifts.
Moore co-produced the album with The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston, with additional production by Oscar Charles and Jay Joyce. Moore has been insistent on letting the music itself signal when to embark on an album cycle.
“I wrote ‘High Hopes’ and ‘Livin’ Side’ back-to-back. I write every morning, but I don’t know I’m in an album cycle until something clicks. When I wrote those two songs within 24 hours of each other, I knew I had something to say. I compiled these songs and I had four months left to turn it in,” he says. “They were like, ‘You don’t have to turn an album in until October,’ so I kept writing. So, with sides C and D, all the extra songs just became this eclectic mix. It’s kind of all over the place, and that’s what I like about it.”“Live Here to Work” — with its opening anthem of a lyric, “F–k that, I don’t live here to work” –feels like a modern version of the 1977 Johnny Paycheck hit “Take This Job and Shove It.”
“It’s a lot of fun to play at shows, I can tell you that much. I always feel a little bad if I see a couple of young kids in the crowd, but I just step on the gas anyway,” Moore says, noting that the song was inspired by overhearing the grumblings of some construction workers near his home. “One of them said, ‘The hell with that. I don’t live here to work,’ and I thought, ‘Well, f–k, we’ll be a little more emphatic. I ended up writing around that. I’d done those kinds of constructions jobs before.”
Moore co-wrote nearly every song on the album, with the exception of the moody, swaggering “Bad Spot,” a solo write from Casey Beathard, who also contributed to seven other songs on Solitary Tracks.
“It felt like everything I wanted to say at that particular time in my life, and it felt so cohesive, and I loved the hook,” Moore says. “We wrote a lot [of songs] at my house on the East Coast, and he’s never the type of guy who’s going to try to push his own music on you — but I asked if he had written anything he would want me to hear, and he suggested ‘Bad Spot.’ It was automatic for me. It was too good of a song not to record.”
Back in mid-2017, for his third album Slowheart, Moore pledged to help songwriters, many of whom have been severely hurt by the switch from an album to a singles and streaming economy, by paying an annual bonus to writers who contributed songs to his albums that weren’t selected as radio singles. He is considering doing that again with this project.
“I’ve been thinking about going back to it on this record,” Moore says. “When I did that the first time around, my hope was that it would create a little trickle effect with other artists, but that’s not what happened. My whole hope was if we were all kind of tipping out these songwriters, that if someone has a cut with me and a cut with a Keith Urban or another artist, there’s three artists all tipping him $5,000—well, $15,000 ends up being a big difference in yearly income.”
He adds, “I realized [that] because the streaming pay is so f–ked, what it’s done is it’s made writers not just focus on writing the best song that day; it’s made writers only thing about a single for radio, and that’s detrimental to the writing process. If they’re doing the right thing and paying these songwriters the right way, the songs will only get better. But I don’t see that happening without it just becoming a law in Congress driving that force. I can’t see anybody letting go of their lion’s share.”
Compounding the problem is hit songs sounding homogenous, as many new artists chase a sound similar to massive hitmakers such as Zach Bryan’s roots-rock sound, or Morgan Wallen’s brand of pop-country.
“That’s just a phenomenon on its own, and I also knew it would create 10,000 Zach Bryan wannabes,” Moore says. “With anything that pops, you get too many artists [following] that don’t know who they are to begin with. I mean, right now, you’ve got four Morgan Wallens on the radio,” he says. “It waters down the format. Nobody’s going to do it better than Morgan Wallen, so it’s all going to be 2.0, but the crazy thing is they get rewarded and get tons of airplay. Back in the ‘80s, I can’t imagine there being someone that sounded just like Tom Petty [on the radio] at the height of Tom Petty, or someone sounding like Bruce Springsteen or Prince at the height of their careers. Variety has always been key. I love that Zach Top has popped, but I don’t want to hear 10 other clones trying to sound like Zach Top.”
The Georgia native has been particularly successful in perhaps an even more challenging endeavor: building up an international fanbase. That focus on international markets sparked when he saw how audiences reacted to his Up All Night album when he played the UK country music festival C2C in 2015.
“I was the opening act and we saw in two markets where we had the highest merch and CD sales,” he recalls. “You have to keep engaging it. Last year, we did two shows in Germany. This year, we’re doing three. We’re doing two new markets. And it’s tough because it costs so much to go over there, but it’s worth it in the long run.”
Moore has toured New Zealand and the Netherlands, while Wimpie van der Sandt, CEO of Bok Radio, helped bring Moore’s music to South Africa, producing the inaugural Cape Town Country Music Festival, held in October, which Moore co-headlined with Zac Brown Band. Moore’s dedication to international touring earned him the Country Music Association’s 2024 international artist achievement award. Moore still has his sights set on performing in markets including Brazil, Mexico and Spain.
Moore says that focus on delivering internationally was a key reason he chose to align with Virgin Music Group, rather than sign with another Nashville-based label. Though labels came calling immediately after he left MCA Nashville, he spent five months making his decision.
“The whole time I wanted to at least get a distributor, because I don’t want to fool with that—that’s a headache, and even almost every independent artist has a label doing distribution,” he says. “So I knew I wanted to team up with a label, but I needed the right thing.
“[I needed] someone who understood the international capacity, and that is where Virgin came in,” he continues. “They had foot soldiers all over the place, so they wanted to pour gas on the international thing — which, the Nashville labels are not as focused on that.”
This spring, Moore will launch the Solitary Tracks World Tour, which will visit Sweden, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the U.K. In June, he’ll return stateside to team with longtime friend, surfing buddy and fellow musician Billy Currington for a run of U.S. shows in states including Florida, California, Virginia and Texas.
“He comes to Maui around the same time I do, and we’ve surfed together for several years,” Moore says. “Billy and I are both very solitary walkers through this life, and I think we share a bit of a kindred spirit. Billy was one of the first people to take me on tour when the Up All Night record came out and I did a tour with him in 2012 or so. I still to this day say he has one of the purest country voices in the world. When he’s doing pure country music, there ain’t a whole lot of people that do it better than him.”
Back in 2011 Katy Perry mused about finding a “futuristic lover” with “different DNA” on the song “E.T.” The pop star might finally get her chance to have an intergalactic encounter when she suits up with an all-female crew for the next civilian space flight on Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket.
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The company announced on Thursday (Feb. 27) that its 11th human space flight, NS-31, will blast off into the cosmos this spring with a six-person team that will also feature CBS Mornings co-host Gayle King, as well as Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
According to a release, Sanchez, an author, licensed helicopter pilot and Vice Chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, will lead the team of explorers “on a mission that will challenge their perspectives of Earth, empower them to share their own stories, and create lasting impact that will inspire generations to come.”
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Perry is gearing up for her global Lifetimes tour, which is slated to kick off on April 23 in Mexico City. At press time it was unknown if the Blue Origin flight will take place before that extensive outing hits the road, keeping the pop star on stages in Mexico, North America, Australia and Europe through a Nov. 11 gig in Madrid. It was also unknown at press time how much prep the civilian astronauts will have to go through to prepare for the flight.
Blue Origin said that the NS-31 crew will also host former NASA rocket scientist, global STEM advocate and Bahamian-American aerospace engineer Aisha Bowe, as well as bioastronautics research scientist, Nobel Peace Prize nominee and civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen — the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman astronaut — and Kerianne Flynn, entrepreneur and producer of the films This Changes Everything and 2024’s LILLY, which told the story of fair-pay advocate Lilly Ledbetter.
Though at press time Perry did not appear to have commented on her impending trip to space on her socials, King, 70, announced her blast off on CBS Mornings, telling viewers, “I don’t know how to explain being terrified and excited at the same time. It’s like how I felt about to deliver a baby… I thought I wanted to open myself up to new adventures and step out of my comfort zone.” The TV presenter who has long joked about her fascination with space flight, also noted that she’d consulted with her two adult children and lifelong bestie and business partner Oprah Winfrey before signing up for the flight.
“Once Kirby and Will and Oprah was fine with it, I was fine,” King said. “I thought Oprah would say no, no. She said, ‘I think if you don’t do it, when they all come back and you had the opportunity to do it, you will be kicking yourself.’ She’s right.”
To date, Blue Origin’s human flight program has sent 52 people above the Kármán line, the internationally recognized boundary of space 62 miles above Earth on its phallus-shaped rockets, with crews that have included Star Trek star William Shatner, as well as company founder Bezos and his brother, Mark Bezos.
The spring flight will be host the first all-female crew since Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova’s solo flight in 1963.
See the CBS announcement below.
The 37th annual Premio Lo Nuestro ceremony, which aired Feb. 20, logged a record 543 million engagements across television, social, digital and ViX, according to TelevisaUnivision. The three-hour show (from 8-11 p.m. ET) reached 4.2 million total viewers across Univision, UniMás, and Galavisión, and delivered year-over-year audience growth among total viewers (+3% to 2.1 million).
Furthermore, this year’s Premio Lo Nuestro — hosted by Thalia, Laura Pausini and Alejandra Espinoza — was the No. 1 program on broadcast television in primetime with more adult (ages 18-34) viewers than the primetime line-ups on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX and The CW. It also finished as the highest-rated program on all of television during the entire day with U.S. Hispanics across all key demographics, according to the Nielsen ratings report.
On social media, Premio Lo Nuestro logged 4.8 million total interactions across Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube combined, making it the No. 1 most social program of the entire day, regardless of language, for the 9th straight year.
With performances by Thalia, Natti Natasha, Xavi, Will Smith, Marc Anthony, among many others, the night also included a special tribute to the late Paquita la del Barrio, who died days before the awards show. La India, Alejandro Fernández and Manuel Alejandro all received special honors throughout the night.
Shakira was the top winner taking home six trophies, including album of the year for Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran and pop female artist of the year. The Colombian star was closely followed by Carín León, who took home five awards, and Karol G and Camilo, each with four. See the complete list of winners here.
In 2025, artists from the indie and pop worlds collaborate and co-mingle regularly enough that it’s almost hard to remember a time when it was ever really that novel. But earlier this century, indie and pop were still isolated enough that in 2009, when Solange took her sister Beyoncé and Bey’s husband Jay-Z to a […]
The music business needs a hug…and a punch to the gut.
As someone who cares deeply about mental health, wellness and supporting people in need, my intentions with this letter come from the purest place of love and empathy. But if I’ve learned anything from my time in the music industry — it’s to be direct. Today, I’m calling for more consistent, accessible personal and professional development support for the people who keep the music industry’s wheels turning. These include things like leadership and communication training, adaptability and resiliency coaching and a basic understanding of emotional intelligence. We cannot have a healthy industry inhabited by healthy humans without the intersection of mental health and professional and personal development. We need to move beyond just checking boxes for things that look good on paper, but do not actually impact those owning the day-to-day operations of our business. It’s unsustainable long-term. What good are resources if the business itself doesn’t support their use? How can we seriously promote wellness while maintaining conditions within the workplace that undermine it? The need to invest in both our well-being and create healthier work environments is becoming dire as we navigate unprecedented mergers and acquisitions, rampant layoffs due to our ever-evolving business, and an increasingly competitive landscape that shows no signs of slowing down.
To start, we could benefit from operating with less ego and more empathy. Leaders can always strive to be better decision-makers and communicators, with a focus on humility and understanding for their teams and partners. They hold the power to make change, but also face immense pressure, and we need to support them in guiding the industry. We also need more people who genuinely care about human growth, and are equipped to fight for changing outdated systems.
These precursors are required to address what our artists are expressing on stage at award shows and what professionals are discussing off the record over dinner. I can’t speak for everyone, but I can speak for the hundreds of people I’ve met over the past five years, including those who attend our jump.global Annual Summit, where we host open forums on these critical topics. Yes, we’re good at calling this all “mental health,” and to some extent, it fits under that umbrella. But it’s so much more than that. It’s dealing with the real-life effects of endless company reorgs, constant performance critiques, burnout from the grind, lack of healthy work-life boundaries and an industry that prioritizes making money without making sure its people are happy with their personal growth.
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These aren’t new revelations. The industry has long been criticized for its broken promises and dehumanizing culture, but we’ve reached a tipping point. People are mentally and physically exhausted, overwhelmed by constant fatigue and the whiplash of relentless demands. They are caught between morning meditation and breathwork sessions, only to be thrown into the chaos of endless emails and unclear paths to advancement. It’s real, and it’s widespread, impacting every part of our personal and professional lives. The music industry must embrace the people who have always been its heart and soul — artists, fans and workers alike. It’s time to nurture the relationships that sustain it, offering the support, care, and recognition that has often been overlooked, and ensure that everyone involved feels valued, heard, and connected. It needs to become so systemic that it’s as common as composing an email or pitching a release. Are we truly listening to the feedback of our teams as much as we are to the charts? If we put people over profit, we can turn this around — but without this shift, we risk burning out the very people who keep this industry alive.
This sentiment is echoed by the coaching community I’ve turned to for my own research and development. “When mental, physical and emotional health are prioritized as part of the fabric of an organization, company culture changes, people get more creative, productivity increases, communication improves, performance gets stronger,” says Marni Wandner, board-certified health coach, executive coach and 22-year music industry vet. “I work with both executives and artists, most of whom are trying to prevent burnout, or recover from it. When people are at their best, the whole industry benefits – and the way we take care of ourselves and each other affects the wellbeing and success of the artists.”
Outside of overall health, It’s important to note how much leadership training plays such a crucial role in all of this. “When we develop our leaders and prepare them well, they can manage their teams effectively and compassionately. We can create better work cultures, retain talent in the industry, reduce burnout and improve performance,” Tamara Gal-On and Remi Harris, UK-based coaches and Co-Founders of the Music Leaders Network, share in a joint statement.
Effective communication has also been identified as a crucial component of strong leadership. Tracey Pepper, a veteran media and public-speaking coach and certified personal coach, shares, “I work with high-level executives every week who are expected to inspire and motivate their teams, whether it’s sharing ideas or delivering feedback, but who have never sought support around developing their communication style. Yet, how they interact with colleagues and co-workers has a significant effect on company culture and, in turn, productivity. Being aware of how you’re impacting others by how you speak to them is a game-changer in leadership.”
I ask nearly everyone I meet about this disconnect, and the consensus is clear: our industry doesn’t necessarily lack awareness of how important professional and personal development resources can be, it lacks the time for people to properly dedicate themselves to it because of how intense and fast-paced their jobs can be. Without an immediate ROI, development often feels like a “luxury” that companies and people can’t afford or something we save for an end-of-year planning session. But what if we stopped viewing it that way and started treating it as the necessity it clearly is?
While I applaud any music company with Learning & Development programs already in place, I hope the journey doesn’t stop after one-off grants, seminars or annual workshops. We need to create ongoing learning environments where professionals are empowered with the tools to thrive personally and professionally. The strength of the business lies not just in the artists we promote or the music we create, but in the culture we nurture within our teams. Developing strong, emotionally intelligent humans that work in music isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s critical for the long-term success and sustainability of the industry. “What is emotional intelligence?” is a fun one to type into ChatGPT, and then compare back to the music business.
Of course, there has been discussion and debate over whose responsibility it is to provide tools in these areas. To be fair, I think it’s everyone’s collective responsibility. Thankfully, generous programs and organizations are already leading the charge to end stigmas and provide essential resources, research and guidance. Again, while much of the headlines focus on mental health, a lot of them work intersectionally through all the areas I mentioned. Backline, Music Industry Therapist Collective, Music Health Alliance, MusiCares, Amber Health, Keychange and numerous coaches and therapists are making a lasting impact and creating meaningful, sustainable change in the industry. We owe a lot to these organizations, as well as those leading ongoing efforts in diversity, equity, inclusion, gender parity, fighting ageism and supporting neurodivergent education.
That said, there is always more that can be done and this is an invitation for all of us to do our part if you are not already. While innovating and commercializing music, we must also dismantle outdated systems and create forward-thinking support for both creatives and the workforce. As we work to heal the world with music, we must first extend that same care to those who make it all possible. Through compassion, empathy and kindness, we can do this.
We are all human, and no matter our title, company, or paycheck we all can, and will, benefit from these changes. To the artist managers who just lost their biggest client, the marketing directors struggling to juggle 20 releases, the people who have devoted their lives to a role only to see it eliminated, the CEO who ascended the corporate ladder only to be knocked back down and to anyone who has ever felt unseen, unsupported, or confused by the industry they love … I see you. This is why we need systemic change that supports you consistently, not just when it becomes impossible to ignore. Whether it’s implementing a new way to foster open communication within your department or simply gifting a coaching session to a colleague – we can all work together to shape more resilient cultures.
So, dear music business humans, I hope you’ll accept this hug and pass it on to the friends you’ve made along the way, the teams you manage, the interns you inspire, the artists you collaborate with and those you’ve yet to meet. To all of the music business-at-large, the gut punches may feel like love taps, but I promise you they carry enough weight to impact your bottom line — today or tomorrow.
With immense love, gratitude and concern,
Nick Maiale
Nick Maiale is the founder & CEO of jump.global – an agency solution for music executives and companies looking to grow their influence through B2B trade marketing, conferences & panels, international relations, college mentorship and more. He is studying to become a certified executive coach with a mission to bring more personal and professional development events, such as the jump.global Annual Summit, to the music business masses.
Sabrina Carpenter‘s tour just got less short and a lot sweeter. On Thursday (Feb. 27), the pop star announced that she’s circling back to North America for a slew of extra dates on her ongoing Short n’ Sweet trek, kicking off this fall. In an Instagram post sharing the new shows, Carpenter wrote, “you asked […]
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Two teenagers were tragically killed in Atlanta, and the police are pointing fingers at rapper Lil Baby for filming a music video on a rival gang’s turf.
According to the Atlanta Police Department, the violent incident was triggered by Lil Baby’s decision to shoot his video in a neighborhood where tensions were already high. The cops believe this move led directly to the senseless deaths of Lamont Freeman, just 13 years old, and another victim. They claim Lamont was only allowed to be a kid for 27 minutes before gang violence took his life.
While the police haven’t directly named Lil Baby in their statement, his connection to the video shoot has been widely reported. The Atlanta Police Department is making it clear that the violence was fueled by grown adults and gang members, with Baby’s presence in the area sparking the deadly chain of events. The police called it a cowardly act, blaming the rapper for putting himself and others in a place he knew he shouldn’t have been.
This situation is shining a light on the way rappers, especially those with massive influence, interact with the communities they film in. While Lil Baby hasn’t publicly responded to the allegations, the incident is raising serious questions about the responsibility of artists when it comes to the neighborhoods they represent in their work. The investigation is still ongoing, and more details will be coming out as the story develops.
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Daredevil: Born Again hasn’t even premiered on Disney+ yet, but Marvel is already looking towards the future of one of its most prominent characters and have committed to bringing back a fan favorite ass-kicking classic antihero.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher will be returning with his own one-shot story in the near future after he makes his long-awaited return in Daredevil: Born Again. Much in the vein of Werewolf by Night and The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday, the one-time special should be a bloody affair, as we all know Frank Castle aka The Punisher lives to hurt and kill his Ops. With word that the new Daredevil series is actually more violent than its predecessors, a Punisher one-off should be taking the ultraviolence sequences to another level.
Per Entertainment Weekly:
Bernthal is also writing the script with his We Own This City director Reinaldo Marcus Green, who will helm this standalone special. “It’s like a shotgun blast of a story, but also has all the pathos and emotion that you want out of a Frank Castle story,” Brad Winderbaum, the head of Marvel Television, tells EW. “It’s so exciting.”
Winderbaum tells EW the story concept for the Punisher special came while filming season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again, which will premiere two episodes on Disney+ this March 4. On that show, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock goes to Frank “because he needs something done that he’s unwilling to do,” Winderbaum previously teased. “And Frank, a bull in a china shop, drives right to the heart of the matter.”
“Bernthal is a generational actor,” Winderbaum says. “He’s incredible what he brings to all the roles he plays, but particularly Frank Castle. And he’s a great writer. He knows the character inside and out…. Also, I love Punisher, but I love Jon’s Punisher in particular. The idea that he’s in the MCU and can bring that to the greater universe, especially the more grounded street-level stuff, is a huge opportunity and, as a fan, the greatest thing ever.”
We. Can’t. Wait.
While we don’t know how big of a role The Punisher will have in Born Again, we know he’ll be helping the Man With No Fear dish out some harsh justice on the streets of New York, and we’re all for it. Where he goes from there will probably be explored in the new Punisher special (unless it’s a prequel of sorts) and hopefully we’ll get some cameos from some of his fellow vigilantes in the Big Apple. Luke Cage maybe? One can only hope, right?
What do y’all think about The Punisher getting his own one-time story? Should it be a series? Let us know in the comments section below.
Little Simz has kicked off her 2025 with the release of a mighty new single, “Flood,” and announced her upcoming sixth album, Lotus.
The new album will be released on May 9 via AWAL, and will be her first studio LP since 2022’s No Thank You.
Featuring vocals from both Obongjayar and Moonchild Sanelly, the lead track marks the first slice of new material from Simz this year. It arrives accompanied by a striking video, which was directed by Salomon Ligthelm.
In February 2024, Simz put out her Drop 7 EP, which was followed by surprise single “Hello, Hi” in December. Throughout the year, she also made a slew of guest appearances on other artists’ tracks: Coldplay’s “We Pray,” Sampha’s “Satellite Business 2.0” and Wretch 32’s “Black and British.” In June, she appeared on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury, marking her biggest show to date.
More recently, Simz was nominated in the hip-hop/rap/grime category at The BRITs 2025, which will take place at London’s O2 Arena Saturday (March 1). She has previously triumphed at the awards ceremony, scooping the best new artist gong in 2022.
In January, it was announced that the 31-year-old will curate this year’s Meltdown Festival at the capital’s Southbank Centre. Taking place between June 12-22, the event will see Simz craft a wide-ranging bill of music, art and workshops across 11 nights, with the full lineup expected to arrive soon.
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Across the course of an illustrious career, Simz has released five studio albums, among a wealth of mixtapes and extended projects. In 2022, she won the Mercury Prize for her fourth LP Sometimes I Might Be Introvert – her highest charting record in the U.K. to date, landing at No. 4 upon release.
When the Oscars announced that this year’s nominees for best original song would not be performed on the telecast, but that there would instead be a single spot focused on the songwriters of those songs, some feared that music would get short shrift on the annual awards show, which airs Sunday, March 2, from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. Subsequent announcements have proved that this is not the case.
Six powerhouse women – Doja Cat, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, LISA of BLACKPINK, Queen Latifah and RAYE – will perform on the telecast. The show also will feature a special appearance by the Los Angeles Master Chorale.
Erivo and Grande, who are both nominated for their roles in Wicked, are expected to open the telecast with one or more songs from that blockbuster musical. Queen Latifah is set to take part in a tribute to Quincy Jones, who died in November at age 91. Latifah, a longtime friend of the music and film titan, performed on two tracks on his 1995 album Q’s Jook Joint.
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The other women are expected to participate in “performances celebrating the filmmaking community and some of its legends.”
“There are special moments that are planned and it’s about music, it’s about celebration, it’s about celebrating some really amazing pieces of film and even a Governor’s Award with Quincy Jones,” the show’s executive producer and showrunner Raj Kapoor said in a Zoom press conference with the creative team on Wednesday (Feb. 26). “The music performances are just really special and curated this year. And I think they speak to this year in film, and they also speak to icons and legends.”
But Kapoor didn’t want to divulge too much about the show. “I mean we absolutely love the element of surprise. What I can say is [that even with] every presenter and every performer that’s already been announced, there’s still more to come. There are people that are not going to be announced,” he teased. “You will have to keep a sharp eye out for a few different cameos that happen throughout the evening.”
Kapoor said the show will have a couple of themes. “One is that we are honoring the city of Los Angeles. … We really wanted to create some really beautiful moments on stage that celebrate this amazing city that we live in, all the amazing films that have been filmed here, and just have a really uplifting and beautiful message that we hope really touches everybody who watches the show.
Supervising choreographer Mandy Moore said they will aim to recapture some of the excitement of last year’s show-stopping Ryan Gosling performance of “I’m Just Ken.” “I can definitely say if you liked Kenergy, you’re going to love everything we’re doing this year because it’s in the same vein of joy and celebration.”
RAYE performed her song “Oscar Winning Tears,” from her album My 21st Century Blues, on the Grammy telecast on Feb. 2, where she was a best new artist nominee. Kapoor was an executive producer of that show as well.
Last year’s Oscar winners in the four acting categories – Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone, Robert Downey Jr. and Da’Vine Joy Randolph – were the first presenters announced for this year’s show.
Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldaña, two of the stars of Emilia Pérez; Ben Stiller; and Joe Alwyn, one of the stars of The Brutalist (though probably still best known as Taylor Swift’s ex) have since been added to the list of presenters. This will be Gomez’s first appearance on the Oscars stage. Other presenters range from 25-year-old starlet Lily-Rose Depp (daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis) to 95-year old character actress June Squibb.
Conan O’Brien will host the telecast for the first time. Nick Offerman will serve as announcer.
The 2025 Oscars will air live on ABC and stream live on Hulu on Sunday, March 2, at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with the official live red carpet show airing at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
Here are the performers and presenters for the 2025 Oscars.
Performers
Doja Cat
Cynthia Erivo
Ariana Grande
LISA of Blackpink
Queen Latifah (Quincy Jones tribute)
RAYE
Presenters
Joe Alwyn
Dave Bautista
Halle Berry
Sterling K. Brown
Penélope Cruz
Willem Dafoe
Ana de Armas
Lily-Rose Depp
Robert Downey Jr.
Elle Fanning
Harrison Ford
Gal Gadot
Andrew Garfield
Whoopi Goldberg
Selena Gomez
Goldie Hawn
Samuel L. Jackson
Scarlett Johansson
John Lithgow
Cillian Murphy
Connie Nielsen
Amy Poehler
Margaret Qualley
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Alba Rohrwacher
Zoe Saldaña
June Squibb
Ben Stiller
Emma Stone
Oprah Winfrey
Bowen Yang
Rachel Zegler